Why biting your Nails is than a bad habit?

Sure, biting and picking at your nails is kinda gross. It also is a sure-fire way to make your manicure that was supposed to last all week last only a day. And while it's a nervous habit that's certainly on the more innocuous side of the spectrum, it can still affect your health.

Nail biting is considered an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-R, and is classified under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the DSM-5. The ICD-10 classifies it as "other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence."[1] Nevertheless, the frontier between normal and a pathological nail biting is not clear.

In addition, if you have a wart, biting your fingernails is a way to raise your risk of spreading warts to other parts of your hands. That's because warts are caused by one of the many kinds of human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that spreads as an infection. "The more open skin you have, the more you're going to spread" the virus, she says.

Biting or picking your nails could also lead to temporary or permanent effects to your actual nail.

Torgerson explains that the majority of the fingernail is produced in the area of the nail bed where there is a "white hill," also called the lunula. The fingernail is made there, as well as the area beneath the lunula that extends down underneath the skin. "So if you end up with a lot of inflammation or an infection of that skin ... where the fingernail is made, you can start making a funny fingernail," she explains. "You may end up with a fingernail that's bumpy or ridge-y."

Sometimes these effects are temporary. An infection that lasts a week or two might lead to a funny-looking nail for a short period of time, she says. But "you can also do permanent damage to the area, so you forever make a funny nail."

Nail biting can also have effects on your teeth: As Everyday Health points out, it can lead to teeth shifting out of place, as well as potential breaks in teeth or tooth enamel.

Other body-focused repetitive behaviors include excoriation disorder (skin picking), dermatophagia (skin biting), and trichotillomania (the urge to pull out hair), and all of them tend to coexist with nail biting. As an oral parafunctional activity, it is also associated with bruxism (tooth clenching and grinding), and other habits such as pen chewing and cheek biting